Grease Extract Ventilation Systems
Compliance with Fire Safety Law
The new Fire Safety Law brings major changes to fire safety
regulations. Fire Authorities will no longer be responsible for issuing
fire certificates. Companies, as well as individuals,
will be made responsible for their own compliance
with the legislation. Every organisation will have
a duty to mitigate the consequences of any fire and, specifically, to
nominate a ‘responsible person’ or 'persons', e.g. the employer, the owner or any other
person who exercises control over all, or a part of, the premises. The
responsible person will have to assess the risks of fire in a Fire Risk
Assessment and take steps
to reduce or remove them. Should the 'responsible person' fail to carry
out these duties they will be held personally liable for injury or death
to building occupants in the event of a fire. The Fire Authorities will
retain powers for compliance and enforcement.
These responsibilities will equally apply to a contractor who is in
charge of part of the premises in order to provide a service e.g. a
contract caterer. They will need to ensure a Fire Risk Assessment is
carried out for the catering facility and this assessment must include the
kitchen's grease extract ventilation system where grease from the cooking
operation accumulates in the ducting. This is a potential fire risk area
and the catering contractor has a responsibility to ensure action is taken
to eliminate the risk.
Compliance with Insurance Requirements
As a result of the
escalating costs of compensation for losses arising from major fires and
recent court case judgements,
Insurers, particularly those who are members of the Association of British
Insurers, are now including clauses in their policies requiring specific
action to be taken to reduce fire risks in grease extract systems.
The Norwich Union, one of
the UK’s leading providers of commercial property insurance, recently
stated on their commercial property policy: “Kitchen extract ductwork
needs to be inspected internally to check on the build-up of grease
deposits and cleaned annually as a minimum, although the exact frequency
will depend on the level of usage of the cooking equipment”.
Those who
fail to comply with the new Fire Safety Order will find their property insurance
either impossible to obtain, difficult to renew or invalid in the case of
fire.
CAUTIONARY NOTE
There have been instances where property occupiers have thought their
grease extract systems had been cleaned only to find, usually as a result
of a fire, that
grease deposits had not been removed from the system. Now, Insurers are
demanding that deep cleaning should be carried out
in accordance with the Heating and Ventilating Contractors' Association’s
Standard TR19 and only contractors who can comply with this
specification should be retained.
Indepth Hygiene Services,
as a member of the HVCA, carry out all deep cleaning services in
accordance with this specification.
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